


Summers with the Kents

by Korkyra



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Eventual Romance, Family, Family Dynamics, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:28:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25034716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Korkyra/pseuds/Korkyra
Summary: Superman's parents always thought they had it good.
Relationships: Clark Kent & Jonathan Kent & Martha Kent, Clark Kent & Lex Luthor, Jon Lane Kent & Kon-El | Conner Kent, Kon-El | Conner Kent & Lex Luthor, Kon-El | Conner Kent/Jason Todd, Tim Drake & Kon-El | Conner Kent
Comments: 4
Kudos: 98





	Summers with the Kents

The Kents didn't need much in life. All that matters was theirs, anyway.

A healthy son with a steady job and relationship, with a secret identity dealing with threats of all kinds and a most complicated relation with the world's most notorious genius with a moral compass no one know where exactly it points at most of the time.

They led a simple life on their farm, took care of the fields and animals, spent Sunday's relaxing with hot brews in the cold seasons and iced tea with home made nice pie in the summer. The patriarch drove his tractor in peace, often humming some catchy song he heard on the radio that morning, with the matriarch feeding the chickens and talking to the cows as they fed on grass behind the barn.

Life was good.

Then, life got better.

Their first grandchild arrived. Quite literally. Straight out of a lab. Caused quite a few shocks. Some denials. Court cases. Existential crisis.

Last but not least, a fun summer.

All storms pass eventually, Jonathan would say and Martha would agree with a smile.

So did this one.

Starting summer, their grandchild would sometimes visit.

Kon El was a little sunshine with sharp wits, Jonathan and Martha would soon discover, which made spending time with him all the more fun. His curiosity took a hold of him, making him open up to learning about his grandparents and their lives, how to run a farm, how to know when a pie is properly done, how living on a patch of land away from the city could be a great thing if one needed some proper alone time.

Martha set up a room for him, later moved the necessary things to the unused loft in the empty barn with a roof needing a fix Jonathan quite honestly forgot about and their Clark was busy with planet saving duties and was somewhat short on time to attend to it.

Kon's idea using an extra window wing the older Kent's had stashed up way back when solved the problem and gave the boy a spectacular view of the night sky.

Yes, there was something about chilly early mornings with nothing but the sound of dry grass, still green leaves on the tress rustling with the breeze over the empty fields, animals waking up and a tractor being started just as the dawn breaks.

Sunny side up eggs with crisp toast, full fat milk one could easily take as a whole meal in itself, fresh butter on a simple white porcelain plate, on top of a chequered table cloth in a simple wooden kitchen with herbs drying on the walls was a stark contrast to the modern kitchen he had at home, with a kind chef and his dad to prepare breakfast, not unlike this one, with modern twists and interesting shapes, things he'd seen in his favourite movies awaiting him in the morning with all the sun filling the room as one could get. Dad's pancakes on Saturday's were a special delight.

Both...felt like home.

Martha's pies and cookies on the tray as well as honey muffins and chocolate mint cream puffs on square emerald ceramic.

The whiff of cut dry grass and the lavender in tall vases.

The wooden floorboards with a narrow staircase and the cool marble floors he could slide on (not something his father approves of but never actually says anything with that amused smile of his, so maybe he does.)

The haystacks in the field as well as the neatly cut grass in the park of the apartment complex easily rivalling some grandiose château gardens.

Oil blotches and engine lessons with world history and macroeconomics, with Arabic in the afternoon.

Crickets in the night, out of tune radio in the morning and instrumental classics's with chemistry assignments.

Things like these showed a world painted in stark differences yet so similar despite them. He understood both of his parents a bit through that. The thing that could have been a common ground, at some point. The other side of the coin, he understood quite early on – Lex's patience with Kon was non-existent in cases involving Kal El.

Kon figured that was a touchy subject in all ways that mattered. He's felt one of the reasons why things didn't work – he _was_ one of the reasons things didn't work. Never would Lex let him feel like that, but Kon could put two and two together. That he wasn't really the cause of this, he understood. That his existence didn't help matters, that's a subject he could successfully debate on.

Still, none of that occupied his mind as summers went on.

As hard-headed as they could be, neither Lex nor Clark could deny Jonathan's and Martha's simple request of having the boy with them over the summer for a while. Clark was physically incapable of denying his parents any request, whereas Lex wouldn't deny Kon the experience of having loving grandparents, no matter his differences with Clark.

The Kent farm became a second home over time, with some positive steps in other matters.

Once the shock wore off, Clark made baby steps towards a better relationship with Kon, stepping occasionally on a few landmines consecutively when it came to Lex's point of view – the man was as unforgiving as Superman was bulletproof.

Still, a chance to pass down something of his own revealed itself one morning when Kon used his newly developed heat vision to warm some milk for himself. Not as effective as Clark's own, but the simple fact he had it enlightened the journalist like nothing else.

He would be clumsy as a baby elephant when wanting to teach Kon things he could do with his powers, even Lex couldn't say something against it, not really although he _would_ as sure as the sun rose every day.

Though, maybe informing the other side of teaching the kid how to breathe in space might have been the better move. Kon was thrilled beyond belief. Lex...not so much.

Then came the friends and the sleep overs.

The Kent's made the old barn a fully functional sleep over base by that time, re-using some of their old furniture, with a fresh coat of paint on it. Jonathan wanted to be rid of it, Martha insisted they kept a few pieces, all proud as she held that paint brush in her hands, sitting on the porch that day as Jonathan took over the kitchen, making sure the roast didn't catch fire in the oven.

The occasional bat plane in the clearing behind the house wasn't that much of an unusual sight appearing and disappearing to leave or pick up the Wayne kids.

One summer, they've seen quite a lot of one of them.

Not that they minded, Jason was always welcome.

At some point he became a food messenger between them and Alfred with home goods and a cake here and there. Both Alfred and Martha insisted they didn't need to send things but made sure to pack up a little something, no significance, barely worth mentioning.

Kon would have little things packed into his bags when going back to Metropolis, too, and for once in his life Clark did the sensible thing and not point fingers at it, which may or may not have something to do with certain paper issues vanishing the first day Kon stepped foot in the Kent home.

Jonathan kept matters to himself, ever the proud working man with simple wishes and sane farmer logic, shouldering his share but there were things Clark's secret persona couldn't handle, let alone him, so he left it at that. Thought best to leave it alone and make the best out of it.

Last time he saw the Luthor boy, he knew he did the right thing.

It rubbed a bit on his own pride, he won't deny that to himself.

Still, world economics didn't always make sense to him, another thing he won't deny.

All the free time he gained he used to pamper Kon and his friends in his own way.

That Clark could be an accidental busybody was something both he and Martha knew, but him gaping like a fish out of water, a bit pale one evening after nearly bulldozing the barn door because his grown ass couldn't wait to tell the kid something had Jonathan laugh for a good deal of the evening and Martha reprimanding him over being so rude, has he never heard of knocking, they didn't barge like that into his room when he was that age, did they??

Better yet, had he missed the bike parked on the porch owned by Wayne's second oldest? Really, Clarkie.

_Clarkie._

He'll never hear the end of it.

So maybe a bit of romance sparked between Kon and Jay, it had been a topic of gossip between his brothers and sisters for a while now, all pretending they didn't notice shit when he was in the vicinity. Of course Jason could tell that.

He just opted to ignore their noisy asses.

(Tim was the first to hear the news, suddenly able to sleep peacefully at nights.)

Kon had been a bit careful around Tim until he figured the right time to confess his growing crush to his best friend, said best friend giving him the _congrats between you and I you're the last to figure it out_ look, perhaps even giving him a kick in the right direction by laying out everything he had in his files that suggested this might not be so one-sided as Kon had thought at first.

(But best you tell him yourself, I'll cover your ass on the off chance he says no.)

Even if the cold calculating look in his eyes he usually got when hatching a plan that better worked told Kon maybe he not wait that long for sanity reasons.

Dinner time at the Kent's had Jonathan and Jason tease the ever-loving sunshine out of _Clarkie_ for his reaction.

(Kisses aren't scary, son, move on with the times.)

(Would it offend thee, good sir, if I asketh for the company of Kon for the evening's upcoming event of the shooting stars?)

Kon, being the little bread loaf that he was when not provoked, explained later everything was fine on the _other_ side, if that worried him, or was it something that he personally didn't see coming?

Oh, he saw it coming, just not in this particular arrangement, but he again did the most sensible thing and managed some other excuse with the firm decision of never not knocking on a door in his life.

(Later events will have him not break windows upon entering to have a word with Lex about accidental weapons while the conversation took place in Kon's favourite condo.)

Clark just had terrible luck.

(Based on some horrible decisions.)

(Him introducing Jon to Kon one particular evening left hope for future good ones.)

Kon had just returned from the old continent and Jon was already half rearranging the interior with speed down the stairs, having gotten Clark's old room, regardless of Clark's pleads not to use his powers in the house.

(Tell m all about it! The boy looks up at Kon with the most sincere eyes.)

(Dinner's in an hour, why don't you relax a bit.)

Jonathan listened to Kon's adventures from the porch, enjoying the chat in the house.

Life was good to him.

**Author's Note:**

> Have some not canon DC


End file.
